Thursday, March 5, 2015

SmallWar at the 2015 Adelaide Festival

SmallWar. Australian Premiere

Written and performed by Valentijn Dhaenens. Video, set and sound design Jeroen Wuyts. Produced and presented by SKaGeN, Richard Jordan Productions and the Theatre Royal Plymouth in co-production with Stuk and De Tijid. The Space. Adelaide Festival Centre March 2-4 2015

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Valentijn Dhaenens

A limbless body lies swathed in a
blanket on a hospital bed. Beside him a World War 1 nurse (Valentijn Dhaenens)
stands gently singing “There was a boy, a very special boy”. The haunting voiceover
of the wounded soldier recounts the character of war against the droning sound
of a ghostly hum. It is the mournful lament of the victims of war across the millennia.
Profoundly moving in its sentiments, deeply disturbing in its truths and startlingly
simple in its honest logic, SmallWar in the intimate Space at the Adelaide
Festival Centre casts new light on the impact of war on the individual. Drawn
from accounts of soldiers, doctors, nurses and officers who served in wars from
Attila the Hun to Afghanistan, SmallWar lends voice to the 120,000 victims of
conflict between 1914 and 2014. It is a frightening statistic that glares at us
from the large projection screen across the stage.

We have become accustomed to the
horrors of war. Nightly, the hideous images of current conflicts and atrocities
flash through our living rooms. In this country’s centenary commemorations we
are reminded of the appalling horrors and lauded glories of Gallipoli and the
Western Front. We recognize the incongruity of human conflict, its devastating
impact on nations, its horrendous loss of life in the countless rows of
crosses, and, tragically, its seeming inevitability.

Valentijn Dhaenens in SmallWar. Photo by Inge Lauwers

SmallWar zooms in on the shattered
remains of the individual soldier. With the amazing use of digital technology,
images of the motionless patient emerge from the bed to appear in hospital garb
behind the larger screen. Dhaenens depicts the various facets of the soldier,
at times interacting with himself as the nurse, the girlfriend or the mother of
the wounded soldier. Reality and illusion fuse in a digital world of
experience. Each image presents moments in a soldier’s life, before the war,
during the war and ultimately as a victim of combat fatigue, shell shock or
post-traumatic stress syndrome. A rhetorical debate between the images and the
nurse raises questions, challenges beliefs, attacks motives and layers the arguments
with undeniable cynicism.

Ultimately we are left with an
appreciation, not only of the futility of war. that has never been in doubt, but
also more poignantly, more profoundly and more fearfully the reality of the
destruction of life, of opportunity, of dreams and aspirations and the possibilities
denied by the brutal consequences of man’s inhumanity to man.

Dhaenens’ inhabiting of the many
characters and personas offers a tour de force performance, persuasive in its truth,
powerful in its argument and hypnotic in its conviction. Finally, like the
wounded soldier, we are confined to a state of helplessness. The soldier’s
recorded voice cries out through the darkened theatre, “If I had arms, I could
kill myself. If I had legs I could run away. If I had a voice I could have a
conversation with myself.” Dhaenens reminds us that there are many reasons that
young men will go to war. There can be no reason why it is right and sweet to
die for one’s country.

Dhaenen’s brilliantly
orchestrated fusion of digitally realized and real performance heightens our
sensibilities, evokes more directly our emotions and brings us to a greater understanding
of the frightening inevitability of war and its consequences. Original,
imaginative and profoundly thought-provoking, SmallWars is theatre that will
continue to question and debate the necessity or otherwise of war long after
you have left the theatre.

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About Me

The 26 year-old Canberra Critics’ Circle is the only such group of critics in Australia that runs across all the major art forms, not just performing arts.
The circle changes each year depending on who is writing or broadcasting on the arts in Canberra.
Our aim is to provide a focal point for Canberra reviewers in print and electronic media through discussions and forums. As well, we make awards to ACT region artists (defined as within 100km radius of Canberra) in the latter part of each year.
The CCC has always resisted making awards in “best-of” categories. Arts practice is not a competitive race and Canberra is a small pool where it would be ridiculous to pre-impose categories, apart from major art form genres. The idea is that we, the critics, single out qualities we have noticed -- things which have struck us as important. These could be expressed as abstracts, like impact, originality, creativity, craftsmanship and excellence.
Our year is from September 30 2016 to September 30 2017.
Convener of the Circle is Helen Musa.